Within the Royal Botanic Garden (October 1997)
My wife sat on a wall along Farm Cove in the Royal Botanic Garden on a beautiful Spring day (map). The Sydney central business district formed a great backdrop behind her. Weather reports from home told of an unusually cold and rainy Autumn day back in the States so we appreciated Sydney even more.
Many of Sydney’s tourist spots fit into a compact area easily covered on foot. The botanic gardens provided a quiet location to relax and avoid the noise of the city for a moment. At other times we felt more energetic and we wandered through “The Rocks” (the original part of Sydney), Darling Harbour, the Harbour Bridge, and many of the attractions associated with them. And shopping, lots of shopping.
We stayed in City Center, a short walk from The Rocks, Circular Quay, and many of the other tourist destinations. City Center felt familiar, and reminded me of cities back home — crowds of people dressed in dark blue and gray suits, rushing to and from their offices, with mobile phones permanently attached to the sides of their heads. It was too much like home and I was supposed to be on vacation, so I appreciated that the rest of Australia seemed more relaxed.
During our trip the Australian Dollar continued to drop against the U.S. Dollar due to an Asian stock market crises. We did our best to help the Australian economy by purchasing lots of gifts for the folks back home. Widespread credit card acceptance and universal availability of ATM’s meant we had to find excuses to use the traveler’s checks we brought along as insurance. In fact this might have been the last time we ever used traveler’s checks. Do they even exist anymore?
Articles from the 1997 Eastern Australian Tour Series
- Sydney Skyline
- Along Sydney Harbour
- Australian Brewery Coasters
- Australia’s Blue Mountains
- Jenolan Caves
- Brisbane at Sunset
- Atop Mt. Coot-tha
- Noosa National Park
- Glass House Mountains
- Tweed River & Mt. Warning
- Cape Byron Lighthouse
- An Australian Banana Plantation
Readers may also be interested in my 2018 Australasian Adventures Series.
Leave a Reply